Bound & Free Ch. 09

Stacy watched as Alice slowly realized she was being spoken to. With difficulty, Alice tore her gaze away from Stacy's cleavage, trying to hide her obvious reluctance. She looked up at Stacy, probably checking if she'd been caught staring. How ignorant did Alice think Stacy was? Of course Stacy had caught her - she'd been gawking at Stacy's body for several minutes, even before bringing up the topic of Tristan's gift. Alice's face darkened with a pretty little blush. Stacy truly didn't mind her perverted leer. In fact it was only fair, considering the unspeakable things Stacy was going to do to Alice's photo. She'd relive her glory days, back when she'd had fun. Stacy almost wanted to reassure her, but wasn't bereft of reason - not yet.

Stacy put the immaculate cardboard package on the table between them. It was a discreet brown box, addressed to Tristan, with a thin, cheap sticker on top in Tristan's scruffy handwriting. "Stacy - Educational material". She snorted. What could it be, with that vaguely insulting title?

She checked Alice was watching - yes, she was riveted. None of the other tables were paying attention, to them - other than the normal longing gazes she got on a daily basis of course. The artless cacophony of the store and its mindless addicts continued unabated. The smell of the burnt mass-produced coffee wafted over, making her long for her espresso machine. Stacy sighed.

With slow, exaggerated, contrived movements she opened it, gauging Alice's reactions and attention span to draw the process out at long as possible - far longer than she'd expected. When it was open, Stacy was careful to pull it slightly away from Alice - just a little test, a "get to know you" ploy. She artfully opened the lid so it would obscure the other girl's view. Stacy didn't look at the contents - her eyes didn't leave Alice's, waiting to see what she would do. That's what this was all about.

Alice only waited about a second before she shamelessly stood up to see the contents. Stacy grinned in victory - in complete contrast to her feigned disinterest Alice was interested, and if she'd read her correctly, was into them both. Alice's curiosity controlled her utterly - confirming Stacy's suspicions. Three for three - jackpot. She still had the knack. Alice gasped, and it was music to Stacy's ears. She watched with a victorious grin as Alice...

Alice looked around, in a panic. That was unexpected. Alice's face darkened further as she leaned forward, frantically trying to obscure the contents from the nearby tables. Was Alice blushing? Amateur - she was just making it more obvious that they had something to hide. Why was she...

Stacy finally looked down into the box and her mouth fell open. There, nestled in packing material, was an expensive black-and-pink package containing what was obviously, undeniably, a high-end vibrator. She blushed light pink, unable to blink, fixated on the lurid object, stunningly discordant in the coffee shop. In silver font that was annoyingly tricky to read against the black box, the package proclaimed her new vibrator was perfectly curved, remote controlled, app-linked, 20 speeds, 15 patterns. Oh no... Fucking Tristan!

Stacy met Alice's eyes, and saw in them some sympathy for her mingled shame and confusion. It looked like Alice knew this feeling, shared her embarrassment. They exchanged a look.

"Tristan." they said together.

Then the odd harmony broke, and Stacy quickly closed the lid on the offending object. Though she wanted to bluster past the moment, Tristan had made her lose control of the situation. She couldn't form any words. They sat like that for a moment, both blushing furiously in absolute silence, and absolute awkwardness. Stacy's blush deepened, and within seconds her face was as red as a cherry. She couldn't even meet Alice's eyes again. How was this an appropriate gift to "keep her mind off of things"?! Did he have no sensitivity?

With a supreme effort of will, Stacy pushed through it, looking at Alice, daring her to say something else. Alice shook her head slightly. A second later, Alice pulled the box toward herself, blatantly looking at the contents again, reading the box carefully. The little slut. Judging by her actions she wanted one of her own. Well, she couldn't have it! This one was hers. Stacy might share if Alice asked nicely.

"R...right, so." Stacy said, trailing off.

"So." Alice replied, leaning back into her seat, her hand toying with her hair.

"So, er... there aren't any problems." Stacy concluded. "You like me, you like Tristan, we like you."

That was quite a bit more abrupt than the speech she'd been planning. Too late to take it back now. Why did she feel so strange when she said "we"?

"It's not that simple!" Alice exclaimed hotly.

"It is. Just get over yourself and..." Stacy began.

"Excuse me?!" Alice squealed girlishly.

Alice cringed, as if she were embarrassed at her own tone of voice. She definitely should have been. In her peripheral vision Stacy saw the other people in the cafe turning around to look at them. That had to be handled. Stacy frowned at Alice, as if she were a disobedient child.

Stacy raised her voice slightly, projecting her voice for their audience, selecting her words and actions to nudge the crowd to react the way she wanted. She'd done this so many times it was second nature.

"Excuse you indeed, you're disturbing these good people." Stacy waved a hand at the neighboring tables. "Really, Alice. Control yourself."

Their eavesdroppers chuckled, went back to their own conversations. More quietly, Stacy continued speaking.

"We've established you wanted to join us but you lost your nerve. You have no reason to be annoyed with us, just yourself."

Alice's mouth opened and closed, like a goldfish.

"Good talk. You're the only person in your way. Get out of it. Have some fun. Life the life you want. There's nothing stopping you, Alice - some of us aren't that lucky." Stacy said bitterly.

Stacy was exhausted - this had been more of an emotional roller coaster than she'd been prepared for. She got up to leave, taking two steps away. Then Alice blundered. Stacy overheard Alice quietly asking herself a question which made Stacy almost explode in fury.

"What makes him deserve two women?" Alice whined softly.

Stacy's blood flash-boiled into steam. Stacy took a step forward to slap Alice as hard as she could before she managed to arrest the impulse. As it was, she crashed into the back of Alice's chair, forcing the girl against the table. Stacy clenched her fists, her fingernails making painful divots in her palms.

"Deserve?" Stacy hissed furiously into Alice's ear, "what am I, a reward package for services rendered, being handed out by some overlord? Are you my dad? Don't I get a say? Or are you saying you're some kind of supreme arbiter and I need to live my life by your values?"

Alice twisted to stare at Stacy in disbelief. Stacy met Alice's eyes fiercely, a fire within them. Alice's eyes were wide, panicked. Stacy needed to rein herself in, losing her control like this was unseemly. She hadn't been this close to meltdown in years. Tristan had a lot to answer for. She let out a breath, and continued in a more moderate whisper.

"Fine. I won't waste any more of my time on you. I'll tell him I tried, but you're so stubborn you let your pride blind you to a good thing. You don't deserve someone as nice as him anyway, Alice."

Stacy opened her mouth again, to go on and explain further. She would list the ways Alice was wrong, she'd list the ways Tristan was special, so Alice knew what she was missing out on. Stacy stopped herself just in time. Doing that here, in public? Far too gauche to even contemplate. Social suicide, even if she was dating the guy - which she wasn't! Besides, what would be the point? If Alice was going to give up Stacy would only benefit. Stacy bit her lip.

With a final glare at Alice, she turned and swept away from the cafe.

Stacy fumed as she marched along the sidewalk back toward her sorority. How could Alice? That entitled bitch. Alice was questioning Stacy's choices, judging her. Expecting Stacy to behave in particular ways, like so many others did, as if she were an object without her own free will. She didn't have to take that from Alice. She was so ignorant, like she was the heroine in a drama, like she could do no wrong. That little princess, acting exactly how she pleased her whole life. She'd never know the pain of excising pieces of herself to fit a master plan.

In this one, tiny facet of her life couldn't she just have fun, some release? Just for a little while? Of course not, of course Alice had to say Stacy shouldn't behave the way she wanted to. Just like everyone else did, she drew a lane and expected Stacy to travel along it, with stiff social penalties for infractions. She'd never understand the weight of Stacy's burden. How much Stacy needed an escape. The emotional debt she felt to Tristan for giving her a space to breathe, that freedom. She snorted in laughter. Freedom through bondage, who'd ever heard of anything more ridiculous?

In that moment, with that laugh, Stacy made her decision. She would do it. Fuck being considerate of Tristan's "relationship" with Alice. She'd tried. She'd discharged her obligations; nobody could expect anything more. She'd do it tonight; take her Master's virginity, if he let her. She'd use everything she could to convince him. She would patch up Tristan's mood and get her fix at the same time. It would be win-win. In Tristan's situation sex would be a great distractor. He'd forget all about Alice. Stacy just needed to find him.